ee 
~ 
Notices respecting New Books. 137 
changes which alter it. But French vivacity, or another too 
common disposition needless to be insisted on here, suits better 
with another course. 
To the extracts of his journeys in England M. Dupin has 
joined several memoirs which have a natural connexion—that 
of improvement of the arts in public works. We may chiefly 
remark a description of the machines for the use of the navy, ex~ 
ecuted at Rochefort upon the plannings of Mr. Hubert ; an ac- 
count of the experiments on the strength of timber, made by 
the author, the results of which he had the satisfaction of seeing 
confirmed in England; lastly, some valuable memoirs on the 
application of geometry to the stability of floating bodies, to the 
tracing of roads, the lowering of summits and filling of hollows, 
&c.—which memoirs have been approved by the Royal Institute 
of France. 
~ Such a collection of memoirs, by a skilful engineer and a distin- 
guished writer, intended as the description of the ports and great ° 
hydraulic works in a country where the extension of industry, the 
improvement of the arts, the immensity of capitals, have enabled 
the inhabitants to accomplish the most magnificent undertakings, 
cannot fail to excite, in the highest degree, the attention of every 
class of readers. The interest of the subject will possibly cause 
them to regret sometimes not to find in a rapid narration more 
detailed particulars. It is not the lot of every work to be re- 
proached for its brevity: besides, the reader must remember that 
these Memoirs are only the introduction to the complete relation 
of his journey in England, which the author means for a future 
publication. What he has already imparted to us about it, ought 
to give the most favourable idea of the manner in which he has 
considered and treated such a valuable subject, and make us 
wish that he may soon publish his principal work. ' 
M. Dupin’s Memoirs are dedicated to a learned engineer, ce- 
lebrated for the great and useful applications which he has made 
of theory to the works of his art—the celebrated M. Prony. 
Du Grisoux, et des Moyens de preserver les Mines de Houille de 
_.son Inflammatien. *‘ Of Fire-damp, and the Means of pre- 
serving Coal-mines from its Explosion.” Mons, 1818. 8vo. 
- pp. 26. 
The work before us is a brief compendium of information re- 
specting the safety-lamp, which has been published under the 
direction of the Chamber of Commerce of Mons, for the use of 
the proprietors and workmen of the collieries of the province of 
Hainault, well known as one of the richest coal districts in Eu-: 
rope. It consists of a succinct account of the course of observa~ 
tion which led Sir Humphry Davy to his immortal discovery of 
the safety-lamp, and a series of directions for its practical use; 
illustrated 
